What happened to television westerns?

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I saw television westerns as a kid. Bonanza, Gunsmoke, The Wild Wild West, Alias Smith and Jones. And watching those old rerun favorites like Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, The Lone Ranger and The Big Valley. Have television audiences lost interest in westerns? Are westerns not for today’s television audiences? Or is it not politically correct to make one?
 
mexolic said:
I saw television westerns as a kid. Bonanza, Gunsmoke, The Wild Wild West, Alias Smith and Jones. And watching those old rerun favorites like Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, The Lone Ranger and The Big Valley. Have television audiences lost interest in westerns? Are westerns not for today’s television audiences? Or is it not politically correct to make one?
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Correct, westerns ended early 70’s , because the Television Producers claimed time had moved on,
 
Longmire is a modern day western (sort of).

Plus, at least they re-run lots of the old programs - Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel, Bonanza, Wagon Train, etc…
 
mexolic said:
I saw television westerns as a kid. Bonanza, Gunsmoke, The Wild Wild West, Alias Smith and Jones. And watching those old rerun favorites like Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, The Lone Ranger and The Big Valley. Have television audiences lost interest in westerns? Are westerns not for today’s television audiences? Or is it not politically correct to make one?
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I still catch these good old westerns on the Encore Cable Network. Still good watching.
 
Probably a number of factors. Ratings, producers reluctance to make them, production costs, material not PC enough etc. I don’t think you’d want to see one produced today anyway. They like to make things dark, moody; anything but uplifting. They might be inclined to rework something from the past and you know how that usually goes. They’d want to change everything to be a reflection of today’s secular world view. It would not be the kind of western you remember and love. Best to view reruns of the good stuff.
 
Political correctness has to be part of it. That, plus society now wants sensitive, conflicted males, not rugged self-sufficient men. Plus the educational system has turned it’s back on much American history, preferring stories “relevant” to popular social issues. Plus American attention spans have shortened to the size of whatever digital whizz-bang can be sandwiched in between commercials, please don’t bother me with drama or a longer story line that I have to follow or think about. Plus there weren’t any Kardashians in the Old West.
 
captainrick said:
Longmire is a modern day western (sort of).

Plus, at least they re-run lots of the old programs - Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel, Bonanza, Wagon Train, etc…
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I do wish they would rerun Wagon train with Ward Bond. God Bless, Memaw
 
Every so often Hollywood will produce a Western motion picture, but they never seem to catch on.
 
“Hell On Wheels” is a western themed show on AMC (also available on Netflix). It’s definitely more gritty than the shows of the 70s so probably not appropriate for kids. “Justified” on FX is western themed even though it takes place in the modern time (also pretty gritty, FYSA), and I see someone mentioned “Longmire” as another western, set in the present day. I know “Longmire” is on Netflix too, and “Justified” is available on Amazon Prime.
 
I am not sure about public interest anymore, but I would suspect we would have to correct a lot of the ideas we had about the “old west” and that may be why there are less of them. If you think about it, most of the old westerns depicted the American Indian as a rather mindless, and ruthless fool. Women were usually helpless souls, and the men either the total bad guy or hero.

A true to life western might actually be a good thing, but I don’t think most people would like it. Life was mean, many times women spent years alone working the land, while men sought work and were elsewhere, there were attacks by the Indians, but we usually attacked first and have to remember we took over their land and pushed them off it and out of their way of life, death rates where high, then we had slavery to deal with, the Chinese built our railways for us . . . etc. Sure there was good being done in all this, but there was also a high level of lawlessness and things were not that “romantic.”

I would rather see a western that was more truthful and honest, but I am sure many would find such a program less interesting than those with the old saloon, cowboys and Indians fighting, and successful ranches and farms. If you were not tough in those days you simply died.
 
Cricket2 said:
I am not sure about public interest anymore, but I would suspect we would have to correct a lot of the ideas we had about the “old west” and that may be why there are less of them. If you think about it, most of the old westerns depicted the American Indian as a rather mindless, and ruthless fool. Women were usually helpless souls, and the men either the total bad guy or hero.

A true to life western might actually be a good thing, but I don’t think most people would like it. Life was mean, many times women spent years alone working the land, while men sought work and were elsewhere, there were attacks by the Indians, but we usually attacked first and have to remember we took over their land and pushed them off it and out of their way of life, death rates where high, then we had slavery to deal with, the Chinese built our railways for us . . . etc. Sure there was good being done in all this, but there was also a high level of lawlessness and things were not that “romantic.”

I would rather see a western that was more truthful and honest, but I am sure many would find such a program less interesting than those with the old saloon, cowboys and Indians fighting, and successful ranches and farms. If you were not tough in those days you simply died.
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Except for Texas, most of the Western period took place after the end of slavery; else you are spot on.

All historical periods are romanticized. We would find a truthful depiction of any of them to be disagreeable as entertainment.

ICXC NIKA
 
Tarpeian_Rock said:
Political correctness has to be part of it. That, plus society now wants sensitive, conflicted males, not rugged self-sufficient men. Plus the educational system has turned it’s back on much American history, preferring stories “relevant” to popular social issues. Plus American attention spans have shortened to the size of whatever digital whizz-bang can be sandwiched in between commercials, please don’t bother me with drama or a longer story line that I have to follow or think about. Plus there weren’t any Kardashians in the Old West.
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😃 This made me laugh out loud.
We LOVE Longmire. Excellent show…set in Wyoming, but the indoor shots are filmed at Los Golondrinas Ranch in Santa Fe New Mexico, where my sister demo’s traditional Spanish Colonial life and spinning, weaving, and stitching techniques. It’s a great show.
Anyway, thanks for the laugh!
Peace.
 
I like my westerns where there’s a white hat and a black hat. Where there’s a well established Good Guy and a well established Bad Guy. I don’t like the Clint Eastwood westerns, like “Pale Rider,” because the line between villain and hero is too ambiguous–maybe closer to real life, but that’s not what I watch movies for.
 
I think that the demand is there, but the scripts aren’t.

Lonesome Dove is acclaimed as some of the best television ever made. I think that if a script came along that was as good as Lonesome Dove, it would get produced.

I’m sure that it’s harder to write good Western scripts nowadays, because we do have a lot more knowledge of history and we can’t just pump out simplistic scripts where the Indians are the bad guys and the cowboys are the good guys, and the women are all sweet and helpless and guns are the answer.

On the other hand, the public probably wouldn’t buy anything that’s too politically correct, e.g., a show where a cowboy is gay and his mother is an expert gunslinger/pastry chef and the local Indians are the secret spiritual leaders of the President of the United States and the local brothel does more good works than the local church, and the horses whisper to the children, “Please stop riding us, we are your brothers and sisters.”

Yecch.

There are still good PBS productions about the American West. A few days ago, I watched a lot of the show about George Armstrong Custer.

While they were growing up, my daughters loved Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, and they bought the complete series on DVD not too long ago.

I just think there aren’t a lot of people writing good Western scripts. It’s not an easy thing to do.
 
I grew up watching the good tv westerns too.
Wagon Train, Rawhide, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Maverick, Have Gun Will Travel, Big Valley were some of my favorites. They were good fanily entertainment with good moral messages. The bad guy in the black hat always lost.
 
I don’t know about tv, but I thought Dances With Wolves was pretty much a western, pretty well done, and pretty successful. It can still be done.

And I remember listening to The Lone Ranger (et al) on the radio… :eek:
 
Cricket123 said:
I don’t know about tv, but I thought Dances With Wolves was pretty much a western, pretty well done, and pretty successful. It can still be done.

And I remember listening to The Lone Ranger (et al) on the radio… :eek:
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I saw Dancers with wolves again a few weeks ago… It was truly a great movie,
Worth a revisit,same with Driving in cars with boys,also revisited,
Their are such a lot of movies woth a second watch,
 
There aint no John Wayne no more…westerns were never the same after his passing…The Searchers was the greatest western ever made…Lonesome Dove…the greatest mini series ever made…Longmire…so far the greatest modern day western series…now people just want Brokeback Mountain type westerns…:rolleyes:
 
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